8. Photo Op, Holding a Bible

teargas parade | all the cops on horses

ails up and they ride into | the crowd | retreats

what matters is election of | the least fit | the least fit for

I can’t breathe | is a sign of weaknesss | orange cotton candy

that | is a sign of strength | there is no poetry in poetry | that

is because there is no poetry in words | the world was created

to disappear | to dissolve all the way back into the cosmos

we are a blink of a blink of an eye | the virus crowns us

[finger and thumb on the forehead to make an L]

trapped in tiny homes | for months | without food | jobless

if a scrap of poetry | slips into my poem | I must black it

out | hopelessness as a state of life | cop with his knee

cop with his knee on | with his knee on the neck

of a man bearing witness | I can’t breathe | all the way

into death | perp might be lying | could be lying

probably just breathing on the sly | autopsy’ll probably

show blocking his air passage | just had no effect

on his breathing | it’s all underlying conditions

if not breathing didn’t kill him | his pre-existing conditions

would have | definitely would have | covid got him

 

I was just there to watch | covid got us all just where

it wants us | fear of catching it slips away

we protest in groups | we yell at you so you can hear us

but all you hear is your money rattling | in your pockets

in your empty head | in your collection plate | we just don’t

have the money for everyone to eat | some millionaires still

need government help to thrive | we live in the Age of

Expungement | we will erase all light and start over

vaccines cause lupus | epilepsy | autism | drink a little

and you’ll be okay | just a little bleach | just enough to kill

the presidented plays to the camera | the mirror he sees

himself in | the presidented says the governors are | not

tough enough | he will have to make a statement about

manliness | he will have to run away afterwards to avoid

questions too hard for his little brain | don’t they see how

smart I am | why are they so mean to me? | who will take

care of me? | the mounted police move forward | each

horse moves forward into the crowd | the crowd must

be dispersed | for the safety of America | we all need

guns | but only the good may use them to kill

 

the presidented stands clumsily before the church

displaying his Bible | bookmark in Two Corinthians shows him

the way | in whom the god of this world hath blinded

the minds of them which | believe not | lest the light of

the glorious gospel of Christ | who is the image of God

should shine unto them | translated | O | let us commence

a race war | on behalf of white America | to return

kleptocracy to its sacred station | there is blood in the streets

and these people will try | there is blood in the streets

and these people will cry | there is blood in the streets

and these people will die | do not hold ill will against those

brave officers who must | remove the breath from the body

of the black man | do not remove the protective shield

these cops provide | when they | remove the breath from

the body of the black man | do not worry if our people

cannot eat | do not fret | if our people fall and die

do not allow them medicine | do not show them

comfort | do not listen to their heart | do not listen

for their breath | just wait | just wait with patience

if you can wait long enough | maybe they will die